


The Secret

by Tinni



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-12-08
Packaged: 2019-01-15 19:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 12,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12326967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinni/pseuds/Tinni
Summary: How does the Wayne Family look from the outside? What do people in Gotham think of Bruce Wayne's frequent adoption of young boys? This is the story of one man, whose dying wish is to finally learn the truth about Bruce Wayne and all the pretty boys he keeps adopting.





	1. Prologue

“My name is Edward Emmiel, I am the owner of the Gotham Gazette,” the man introduced himself, “And I am dying.”

“My condolences,” replied Kat, “I assume there is a cure, and you would like me to find it for you.”

“There is no cure, and even if there were one, I would not bother with it,” replied Edward, “I have lived long enough. I have just one last mission. Someone I would like to expose. One last story I would like to pen for my paper. A gift to myself and perhaps others.”

“Okay, so what do you need from me?” asked Kat.

“I need your help exposing Bruce Wayne,” replied Edward.

“Expose him for what?” wondered Kat.

“Peodophilia,” came the dramatic reply.

“Huh?”

Edward tossed two old Christmas cards to Kat. One was from some time ago and showed Bruce Wayne with two boys who Kat knew to be Dick Grayson, who must have been about eighteen at the time of the photo, and the other was Jason Todd. He looked about twelve in the photo, it would have been shortly after the time Bruce Wayne adopted the boy. The newer photo was from this year. Dick Grayson was still present, now a young adult. Jason was gone but in his place were two more boys, Tim Drake Wayne, now eighteen and Damian Wayne. Bruce Wayne’s thirteen-year-old biological son, or so they said. Kat initially got the impression that Damian was another adoptee, but the boy looked too much like Bruce Wayne to not be related. There would be a scandal if Bruce Wayne was married or had a larger family to answer too. But the man was an orphan with no close living relative and no steady relationship. As long as he wasn’t doing anything illegal, his private life was no ones concern. Not that it stopped the gossip.

“Mr Wayne has some very handsome boys,” Kat replied.

“Boys he is abusing!” declared Edward.

“Since you are here, I guess you have no proof,” Kat said calmly.

“No, all I have is a hunch,” replied Edward.

“Mr Emmiel,” began Kat, “I like reading the Gotham gossip. It’s mostly a hobby, but it does help my work from time to time. A bachelor with a promiscuous lifestyle adopting a boy was bound to raise eyebrows and fuel speculations. Especially now when sexual predators seem to be everywhere. But it’s been what, almost fifteen years since Bruce Wayne first adopted Dick Grayson. Grayson is an independent adult. If he were abused, surely he would have spoken up by now.”

“Not everybody does,” replied Edward quietly, “I never did.”

Kat didn’t know what to say. So she stayed silent and let Edward continue, “I was an orphan too. I don’t even remember my parents. I was in and out of the foster homes until I was adopted by a kind rich stranger. He was rich, and we didn’t remain strangers for long, but he was not kind,” he explained, “They used to have these parties. Pet parties they called them. To the uninitiated. It really was a party where the rich took their over-pampered dogs and cats. There was a guy who even brought his birds. It wouldn’t be unusual for kids to tag along to these parties, which made it the perfect cover for what happened in the other rooms. The rooms were the average rich pet owner was not allowed.”

“I didn’t escape. I couldn’t escape. But eventually, I got too old. So I was cast aside. Given a generous trust fund for my silence and that was it. I wasted a decade high on smack, self-medicating. But then I realised, I was letting them win. So I turned my life around, took the blood price they paid for my pain and suffering and spun it into a media empire. An empire I dedicated to uncovering the truth! An empire that would also hold the rich and powerful under a microscope. But one of them, one of them always alluded my microscope!”

“Bruce Wayne,” said Kat.

“Gotham is a world onto itself, and Bruce Wayne is the Prince of Gotham. I know the prince has a secret and I always suspected it was the same as my adopted father,” replied Edward, “But I could never prove it. When the news first broke that the twenty-five-year-old bachelor was taking in the ten-year-old Dick Grayson as a ward, a lot of eyebrows were raised. I wasn’t the only one who saw something less than innocent in the gesture, but no one could find anything.”

“Maybe because there was nothing to find,” replied Kat, “I am sorry Mr Emmiel, but it sounds to me like you are projecting. I mean, we as a society have gotten to the point that fathers cannot kiss their own children in public without someone freaking out. Just the other day, I heard of a man who tried to return a lost child, but instead of a thank you, got a punch in the face instead. Bruce Wayne was an orphan. Is it really that much of a stretch to think that he might wish to give other orphans a home?”

“That’s what I told myself after we couldn’t find anything,” Edward replied, “Dick Grayson wouldn’t speak with my people, my sources in his school couldn’t give me anything. Eventually, I had to accept that I was barking up a barren tree. A little longer and I accepted that perhaps I was projecting. So I gave up. Hoped for the best and moved on.”

“So what changed?” wondered Kat.

“Jason Todd,” he said, “He was adopted just as Dick Grayson was getting a bit too old. But then, just as he was getting a bit too old, he disappeared. Died overseas. Buried without fanfare. Bruce Wayne entered a period of mourning, and it was all forgotten. A few more years, Wayne quietly took Tim Drake in. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, comes Damian Wayne. Some say Damian is his biological son born to an old fling who kept it secret. Others say he’s just another adoptee. It’s all very confusing and all very strange.”

“I am truly not seeing the strange part with Tim Drake-Wayne or Damian Wayne. I mean, what happened to the Drakes was horrible. If Bruce Wayne saw himself in a boy from the circus and a boy from the streets, he would certainly see himself in an orphaned rich kid,” Kat pointed out, “As for Damian. He’s half middle-eastern or something. Culture alone might account for why his mother might not have been forthcoming about the child. Based on his pattern, Mr Wayne does tend to go for women who don’t need his money. Damian’s mother is probably from a wealthy family. Maybe their relationship didn’t work out, maybe they had a one night stand that resulted in the child, and for better or worse, she kept Damian secret. Maybe eventually the boy wanted his father, and so, she brought him to his father.”

“All very reasonable and acceptable,” replied Edward, “Except for Jason Todd. He’s the key,” emphasised Edward, “Look, I am not stubborn or crazy. I am ready to accept that I am projecting. Seeing a predator where there is only a good man, a man who understands the pain of losing his only family, so he wants to be there for other orphans. But I have to be certain.”

“All the digging I did when Wayne adopted Dick Grayson and again after Jason Todd’s death convinced me that the man has secrets. Lots of secrets and if one of his secrets is that he’s a vile child molester, then I will use what time I have left on Earth to drag him from the shadows into the light!” Edward emphasised his words by leaning forward and getting up just enough to tower over Kat.

“So you want me to look into Jason Todd’s death?” guessed Kat.

“Yes,” replied Edward, settling back down, “There is no point in pursuing the molestation angle. No one is talking, and despite my best efforts, that road has only ever been paved with rumours. But Jason Todd’s death, that’s unexplored territory. Go down that road and maybe, just maybe, we can find a way into Bruce Wayne’s secrets.”

“And if his secrets have nothing to do with him being a pervert?” wondered Kat.

“Then I die knowing that there is some good still left in the world,” replied Edward, “That I was unlucky. But that there are four boys in the world who have a great father. The kind of father I wish I could have had.”

“Very well,” replied Kat, “I’ll accept, but I won’t come cheap.”

“Money is not an object,” replied the man, suddenly looking old and worn, “Name your price,” so Kat did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is just something that I thought of as I have been stuck in Bat hell. I am not following any specific continuity. Although the Wayne family, in this case, consists only of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd who is legally dead, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. Anyway, just gonna put this out there, completely unedited and see what kind of reception I get. ^.^


	2. Smoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kat delves deeper

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

_Those of us who follow the doings of the Gotham’s elite, know that Bruce Wayne collects cars and injuries, some of them after crashing his cars. When he is not crashing cars or doing something stupid and dangerous like base jumping off Wayne Tower, Bruce Wayne can be found in the arms of the latest and hottest member of the Gotham’s modelling cohort. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that many of us were shocked when Bruce Wayne adopted Dick Grayson all those years ago. We were even more shocked when Mr Wayne plucked off the street his next son, Jason Todd._

_Many a puff piece has been written about how good and kind Bruce Wayne is to take into his home these boys who seemed to have been dealt a hard hand in life. Dick Grayson lost his parents to a mobster, and Jason Todd seemed to have been unfortunately from the moment of his birth. But I have never been convinced by Bruce Wayne’s charitable activities. I am naturally sceptical of humanity and a proud member of the cynical set who looks at every celebrity adoption as a stunt for publicity. At least Bruce Wayne stayed close to home and did not pluck a child from some overseas orphanage with a dubious history._

_Today we learn that Jason Todd has died under suspicious circumstances overseas. The official statement from Wayne Enterprises is that Jason Todd was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was caught in a terrorist bombing. What he was doing overseas, and in a country in upheaval is anyone's guess. Wayne Enterprises offered no explanation beyond stating that Jason Todd loved to travel and study other cultures. Apparently, the boy had expressed a wish to study humanities and languages at Ivy University. A lofty dream for a street rat but perhaps a touch tame for a son of Bruce Wayne. But death sees an end to whatever ambition the boy had._

_I would like to offer my condolences to Mr Wayne, for I would like to believe he is grieving. Mr Wayne as opted to show his grief by withdrawing from the public. If there was a funeral for his adopted son, it was a private. Indeed, even the location of his grave is private. The body has not been seen by any Gotham or indeed, any US official. Given that Jason seems to have made few friends at Gotham Academy and had no relatives, there was no one to challenge Mr Wayne’s version of events, ask to view his body or mourn at his grave._

_Jason Todd lived, Jason Todd died. Perhaps his coffin was of a better quality than what it would have been had it died on the streets. Perhaps he received a gravestone that actually bears his name, instead of the pauper's grave the city would have given him. Perhaps Bruce Wayne is mourning him. We do not know, and we can never know for sure._

* * *

Dear Kat,  
I wrote the above obituary upon the death of Jason Todd. I toned down my feelings quite a bit, but still, the editors of my papers begged and pleaded for me not to publish this. They reasoned that without evidence, I was implying that Bruce Wayne didn’t love his adopted son and was simply putting on an act of mourning him. I couldn't refute them. It was simply my gut feeling that Bruce Wayne didn’t care, had never cared. So I didn’t pull ranks and let them publish a gushing puff piece lauding Bruce Wayne for taking in the boy in the first place. Saying all the pretty words that would please him if he was faking. But if he genuinely loved his son and was a father in grieving, I doubt our pretty words soothed his soul one bit. But I want to know the truth, find me the truth, Kat.

Yours Sincerely,  
Edward Emmiel

* * *

Kat put away the letter and the unpublished article. Everything Edward Emmiel had given her was in hard copy form. She also had a flash drive with soft copy duplicates, but she was warned not to access the flash drive on any computer that could connect to the internet. Indeed, Edward Emmiel had gone so far as to give her a laptop that had all networking hardware not just disabled but completely removed.

Kat thought he was too paranoid. So she ran a little test. She made a copy of the flash drive on the unconnected laptop and then, from one of her more disposable safe houses, she accessed the flash drive on one of her normal machines. Nothing happened. But Edward was paying her enough to adhere to whatever paranoid protocol he requested. So Kat set up two working locations.

At her main base, she only accessed the flash drive on the unconnected laptop and worked off hard copies. At her second, disposable safe house, she did all the work for which she needed the internet. She still thought that Edward was just projecting, but she could see why he was crying fire, there was certainly a lot of smoke around Bruce Wayne.

Bruce Wayne had an Instagram account. The photo stream mostly consisted of photos from his public appearances, including social functions but precious few private shots and even those seemed carefully staged. There was the odd shot of Bruce in front of his favourite Audi. There was another of a non-descriptive skier standing ready on top of a slope that was supposed to be Bruce Wayne. The only time his family showed up was around the holidays. 

Every single Holiday photoshoot was largely the same. Bruce Wayne and his living sons standing stiffly in front of the Wayne Foundation Winter Charity Ball in their tux, with a generic greeting plastered at the bottom. About the only mildly interesting thing about the holiday photos was that the Waynes seemed to be on the “happy holiday” side of the so-called war on Christmas.

All in all, however, Bruce Wayne seemed to be the model an actually very dull and boring person who had enough shallow interests to seem interesting at first glance. But even the lightest of scratches revealed the dull interior. But Bruce Wayne really that different from other celebrities in that regard? Many of them kept a sanitised or crafted public profile. Bruce Wayne was a womanizing socialite who spent most of his free time in the arms of beautiful women or risking his life doing extreme sport. Of course, his online profile would match his public persona.

The kids, however, did not fit in with the persona. Having kids didn’t help you party or do extreme sports. On top of that, someone like Jason Todd wouldn’t be easy. Kat could only imagine how much damage that boy had by the time Bruce Wayne adopted him. Transplanting Jason from the streets to the Manor wouldn’t undo the habits he had learnt to survive. Contrary to popular belief, money was not the magic bullet that cured all. Jason Todd would be a bad adoptee for someone with Bruce Wayne’s profile. He would have been better off picking someone normal who lost his parents tragically. But he picked Jason Todd. There must have been a reason.

Setting aside Bruce Wayne’s clearly carefully curated social media accounts, his Twitter and Facebook were even duller and sanitised then his Instagram, he turned to the accounts of his sons. Damian Wayne only had Instagram and Tumblr. His Instagram was filled with photos of his cat, dog and cow. Occasionally he would take photos of his work in progress art projects. His Tumblr only had his art and infrequently, audios of both classic pieces and original compositions on the violin. The boy was supremely talented. It was almost a waste to think he was going to be a businessman and not spend its days creating art.

Dick Grayson’s social media accounts were filled with posts about circuses around the world, he also seemed to be an avid follower of all forms of men’s gymnastics and interested in street performers who juggled or performed acrobatics. When he wasn’t posting about those topics, he was filling his stream with photos of Damian being cute or playing with his pets. There were also shots of Tim, usually with Damian and looking like he was about to murder the youngest Wayne. There were also a fair few selfies, usually, with posters of circuses or gymnastics events, Dick was attending. He also seemed to delight in taking selfies with both Damian and Tim. The man clearly loved his little brother. Curiously, there was no hint of a partner in Dick’s social media account. That was probably out of respect for their privacy. The Waynes were semi-public figures, doesn’t mean their partners had to be.

Neither Dick nor Damian posted frequently, but it was clear that they did manage their own accounts. Tim Drake was another kettle of fish altogether. He had a Twitter and a Facebook. Both of them seemed to exclusively reblog podcasts, videos and articles both peer-reviewed as well as from the news media, about science and technology. Tim also dutifully reblogged press releases coming out of Wayne Enterprises. So all Kat could get from Tim’s social media footprint was that he was in camp “yeah science!”. Maybe that was the sum total of Tim Drake-Wayne’s personality outside of being the genius who helped his adopted father keep Wayne Enterprises going.

None of the boys ever mentioned Jason Todd, not even during the anniversary of his death. Bruce Wayne did, but it reeked of at best a social media manager, at worst a bot programmed to randomly pick a picture of Jason Todd and attach a sentimental text to it before posting. Kat found this very curious. Damian and Tim, she could understand. They came into the family fold after Jason had died. But why would Dick Grayson, who clearly loved his brothers, never mention Jason Todd? Yes, there was smoke around Bruce Wayne and his family. Now Kat just needed to find the fire.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

Citizens of Gotham loved Gotham, warts and all. So it was not a surprise that proud Gotham natives were happy to donate their time and money to historic societies. But Gotham citizens also had an old world snobbery about them. Especially when it came to their heritage and blood ties to Gotham. So a lot of money and time when into genealogy societies too. Some years ago, the Gotham Historic Society and Gotham Genealogy Society had launched a joint project to photograph and catalogue all Gotham headstone. The whole thing was available online with a very user-friendly and informative interface. The website even supported some pretty complex searches.

Kat had the rough date of Jason Todd’s death. “Rough” because there seemed to be some confusion about exactly when and where Jason Todd had died. Around the time of his death, there had been many terrorist attacks around the world one after another. The press released by the Wayne foundation simply stated that Jason Todd had been caught in one of those. But it wasn’t made clear which one or where. Still, Kat’s own digging and the information gathered previously by Edward gave her a solid date range of when a new headstone should have cropped up in one of Gotham’s cemeteries.

Kat knew that Jason hadn’t been buried near Thomas and Martha Wayne, which Edward used as evidence that Jason was never considered a proper member of the Wayne family. She also unearthed orders to exhume and move all remains of the Wayne family within Wayne manor grounds from some time ago. Kat wasn’t sure why the family had done that. Whatever their reason, they didn’t seem to have asked for permission to exhume wherever Jason Todd was buried.

Edward believed that Jason Todd’s body had ended up in a pauper's grave. He believed Bruce Wayne had used, abused the street rat and after he was done, gave him a street rats burial. So far, Kat couldn’t find any evidence to contradict Edward’s theory. There was no evidence of cremation, but Jason Todd wasn’t buried near the Wayne family. Nor was his grave part of the ones exhumed and moved within Wayne Manor. Now it could be that Jason Todd had been buried within Wayne Manor to start with. The Manor grounds weren’t subject to a lot of the City ordinances the rest of the residents of Gotham had to live by. But Kat needed to be sure.

That is where headstone database built jointly by the Gotham Historic Society and Gotham Genealogy Society came in. She searched for a new gravestone that appeared around the time of Jason’s death. She first tried searching for his name. But as expected, there was none listed. She tried some variations and combinations, but none of them yielded any results. Finally, she searched for headstones that had no names and there it was, a simple grave that read “Beloved Son”. 

It was the only nameless headstone to go up around the date of Jason Todd’s death. It wasn’t a pauper’s grave, but it was certainly an out of the way grave in a secluded graveyard. Clearly, Bruce Wayne wanted the grave out of sight and perhaps out of mind. Kat could just see Edward spinning this to fit his pre-constructed narrative about Bruce Wayne. Now that she had a location, the next thing to do was visit it and see what she could dig up, literally.

* * *

It was empty. The grave of Jason Todd was empty! Kat was so shocked, and for a moment she wondered if she was in the wrong location. But more money slipped to the grave keeper jogged his memory and loosened his tongue. He was happy to tell her about the odd incident a few years back when this particular gave had been under heavy guard. The rumour had it that the Wayne family had paid for the security but only for a little while. Just as abruptly as the security guards came, the security guards were gone. As soon as they were gone, the grave was disturbed.

“You wouldn’t be able to tell if you weren’t me,” he informed Kat proudly, “Whoever dug here did a pretty good job of covering up after themselves. But I could tell. You don’t tend these graves for as long as I have without learning a thing or two. Now, little lady, you want me to cover up that hole you made and make it look like you weren’t here?”

Kat wordlessly handed him more money before turning away. She wasn’t in the wrong grave, but it was no longer the resting place of Jason Todd. So the question now was, where was he?

* * *

Kat felt inexplicably depressed. She didn’t know why. This was a job with openly ended parameters with no clear way forward. Even had she found Jason Todd’s body, she doubted she could uncover anything on his body that would have satisfied Edward one way or another. But finding an empty grave just left her stumped. Especially since the rough timeline the grave keeper supplied implied that Jason’s grave had been disturbed long before the mass exhumation of Wayne family graves. It was unlikely that two incidents were connected. 

Also, Jason Todd’s grave was unmarked and out of the way. It fit entirely too neatly into the narrative that Bruce Wayne had picked up a pretty street rat to play with, and when he was done or perhaps when the toy being too much trouble, he disposed of him and dumped out of sight. The only thing that conflicted with the theory was the fact that Bruce Wayne had hired guards to protect the grave. But that raised the question of why an unmarked grave in a secluded graveyard needed protection in the first place. It was all very weird.

Kat was near her disposable safe house, so she decided to sleep there for the night. But she was also in that strange state of being where she didn’t feel like sleeping but was too tired to do anything remotely mentally taxing. So Kat found herself scrolling through Damian Wayne’s Instagram feed, just looking through the cute photos of the boy's pets. How or why he had a cow she didn’t know. But there were some hilarious shots of Damian actually riding the cow.

She was just scrolling down when something caught her eye. It was one of those rare shots of Damian’s work in progress. He was showing off a half completed canvas depicting a mountain scene. But he had taken the photo from quite a distance, and as a result, a lot of the room was visible. Including some of the completed canvases at the back. It was one of the canvases at the back that caught her attention.

There was nothing special about it. It was just a drawing of a flower. Except, Kat was sure that when she had last seen this particular photo, that particular canvas at the back showed a portrait. Kat switched to the flash drive, which included a folder archiving all non-pet images from Damian’s account. That particular photo wasn’t among the downloads, yet photos of Damian’s work-in-progress after that picture were present. It was a bit odd.

Any other case and Kat would have chalked the incidents up to her memory playing games with her. Perhaps it was Edward’s paranoia or simply the sheer amount of smoke that surrounded the Wayne family, but Kat couldn’t just dismiss the feeling of something being off.

As tired as she was, Kat still decided to make the trip to her main base and double check the original flash drive. It contained the image from Damian’s Instagram, and like she remembered, the canvas at the back was a portrayed. It seems Edward’s paranoia had a basis. Not only had Damian’s original upload been altered, but the flash drive Kat had left connected to a computer accessible via the web had also been altered. But why? What was so significant about a random portrayed that was barely visible? Kat didn’t know, but she intended to find out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I actually double check both Hush and Under the Red Hood, there is a bit of a contradiction regarding Jason's grave. Alfred said in Under the Red Hood that Jason's grave was unmarked. But Hush had a panel that showed Jason's grave had his name on it. I am going to assume that the Hush panel was just for the readers and in-continuity, Jason's grave was unmarked as explained in Under the Red Hood.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

Kat combed her safe house carefully and methodically. She did not spot any physical entry. Next, she carefully started going through her laptop. She didn’t find anything installed on her system. Her expertise in computing would not get her any further. So she made another copy of the original flash drive and physically drove it to a hacker she knew. She left the drive with him after explaining the situation, promising a hefty fee of $100k if he could figure out what the hell was going on.

While Kat didn’t know how it happened, she could work with the aftermath. First, she made another copy original, then converted one of her laptops into a completely unconnected device by ripping out networking hardware, double check the compromised flash drive to make sure it didn’t have any rogue programs. Check it again, before writing a simple script for her own to compare the files on both drives.

At the first pass of the script, it flagged two image files that were present in the original flash drive but not present in the compromised flash drive. She marked the files physically on a notebook, before opening them. The first image was the one she noticed earlier. A photo of Damian Wayne’s workspace where the original image showed a canvas with a portrait resting against the back wall.

The second image was a Dick Grayson selfie with Damian. Both of them are wearing cat ear headbands. The description below the image read, “We had a bet, baby bro lost. Great excuse to use my new selfie stick, $5.95 from the guy outside Bludhaven train station. His name is Jack, and he’s having a hard time. So be sure to stop his booth if you are down that way. Don’t worry; his stuff didn’t fall off the back of a truck as far as I know :)”

At first glance, Kat couldn’t see anything special about the image. For once, it was geo-tagged, but it was just tagged to Wayne Manor. She carefully scanned it to see if there was something special about the image that would cause it to be tagged for stealth removal. The picture was taken at somewhat of an angle. However, Kat could see an open door behind them through which she could see a softly lit corridor. There wasn’t anything she could see that might give a potential criminal information on the security or any other characteristics they might use to break-in. Besides which, Wayne Manor wasn’t a complete unknown.

It was true that Bruce Wayne was far more private with his home than other members of the Gotham elite. He didn’t open his house to lifestyle magazines or hosted interviews at his house, so the topic of providing a tour before he sat down to answer questions never came up. Despite all that, there were historic photos of the inside of the manor easily accessible online from when Martha Wayne was happy to open her house. There were also pictures from the annual dinners hosted at the manor for recipients of the Wayne Foundation scholarships and their family. Not to mention the Wayne Foundation Charity balls usually took place at the Manor.

So what was about the photos that it deletes worthy? Maybe the explanation was something as simple and stupid as the boys got embarrassed, so deleted the photo of them in cat ears. Kat quickly checked Dick Grayson’s Instagram but found that the image was still up there. But it had been altered with filters and did the background look blurrier and out of focus?

Kat took another look at the photo and focused in on the background. It was then she noticed that something resembling a mirror could just be seen through the open door. Was there something reflected in that mirror? Pushing the limits of the image enhancement software in her possession, Kat was able to get an image of a partially reflected man with black hair from the mirror. Tim Drake Wayne?

Why would a background image of Tim Drake Wayne require a re-upload of a shot of Dick and Damian goofing around on Instagram? But replacing an image on Instagram was one thing. People did that all the time if they are unhappy about a particular photo for some reason. But to go so far as to try and get around the whole “internet never forgets” clause by illegally accessing and deleting local copies of the image was a bit much. There had to be more to this.

Kat turned to the photo of Damian’s room and focused in on the portrait. It too was a dark-haired male, and at first glance, it was easy to dismiss it as Damian painting one of his older brothers. Except, now that she took a close look at it. Kat could tell it wasn’t Dick or Tim. In fact, there was a solidity about the portrait that made Kat thing of a man in his early twenties and not a teenager, barely past the ‘baby face’ stage.

The man just looked remarkably like the boys Bruce Wayne was in the habit of adopting. Indeed, Kat wouldn’t be surprised if someone told her that, that was how Damian imagined Jason would look like had he lived long enough to graduate from high school.

An absurd idea entered Kat’s head. An idea straight out of soap operas but now that it was in her head, she couldn’t shake it. But it didn’t make any sense! It barely made any sense when the hack writers of daytime soap operas did it. But what if, what if Jason Todd was alive?


	5. Chapter 5

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

Jason Todd was alive and at Wayne Manor or Jason Todd was dead, and his ghost was at Wayne Manor. Kat had never seen a ghost herself, but she had the misfortune of running into John Constantine once. Besides, when you lived in a world with Superman, Wonder Woman and yes, even Batman, ghosts didn’t seem that far-fetched.

However, there was one big mark against Jason Todd being a ghost. Why would the Wayne family go to such pains to erase the presence of a ghost from the web? Damian’s painting was harmless. Assuming that anyone even noticed that small portrait, the most likely result would have been some conspiracy theories on the parts of the internet that the majority of the people neither knew or cared about. If by any chance a website with a high Alexa ranking did pick up the story to fill their content quota, the Wayne family could simply release a press briefing talking about how Damian Wayne was affected by the stories of the brother he never met and so was honing his skills by drawing his deceased brother.

Even that fact that Damian seemed to be drawing Jason older than at the time of his death could be explained by artistic wish fulfilment. Like that lady in Atonement who became a famous author and wrote a happy ending for her sister and her sister’s lover when in truth they both died because of the lady’s action. Indeed, the Wayne family could even spin it to include an exhibit of Damian’s works that also doubled as a charity event to raise money for the homeless youths of Gotham or something.

The reflection in the mirror, assuming it was Jason Todd, was harder to explain but also something that would have gone completely unnoticed. Only reason Kat even noticed was that of a variation of the Streisand effect and only because she could compare the image that was currently online with what it originally was. But perhaps the Wayne family simply didn’t want to answer questions involving Jason. She still couldn’t account for why Dick Grayson never acknowledged the anniversary of Jason’s death or even say something to mark Jason’s birthday or adoption day. Even if Dick wasn’t comfortable with Jason’s death, sure he could do something to celebrate his life.

If Jason was alive, why fake his death? Why keep faking his death if he is back with his family? Kat refused to consider that the possibility that Jason’s death might have been staged to get him away from the public eye for good. Also to make sure that unlike Dick Grayson, Jason Todd would never be able to leave Bruce Wayne.

For a moment, Kat tried to imagine the moment straight after the photo of Dick and Damian with cat-eared headbands. Did Jason come into the room and join them? Tease Damian with Dick? Put on a pair of headbands too and pose with his brothers? Or was he trying to tiptoe past the boys and not announce his presence? Was he free to roam the manor or was he a prisoner? If it was important to not leak evidence of Jason’s living status to the public, how did Dick Grayson miss the fact that Jason was behind him?

A scene started to form in Kat’s mind from the picture of Dick and Damian goofing around. She could tell from Damian’s face that he was annoyed and not too pleased with having to wear cat ears or take a selfie with his brother. So she imagined Dick barely being able to convince Damian to pose so he could take the picture. He probably posted it straight away, afraid that Damian might have deleted the image, given half a chance. Distracted by Damian, Dick didn’t notice that Jason was in the corridor. Yes, Dick was probably sufficiently distracted for an image containing a fleeting glimpse of Jason to leak out. But how was it spotted and why would the Wayne family go to such trouble to remove even that glimpse?

As if in answer to her questions, Kat’s phone began to ring with the caller ID showing that it was the hacker she had asked to look into the issue.

“My pay just went up!” he said as soon as Kat picked up.

“What? Why? What did you find?” she asked.

“I am not getting into detail over the phone. I want 50k in cash. Get it together by tomorrow evening. I’ll let you know where I’ll meet you midday tomorrow. Make sure to be at your office,” he hung up. Kat decided not to push it. Instead contacted Edward to ask him to make arrangements for the cash.

If the late-night phone call asking for cash payment ten times the order of magnitude on what they agreed on hadn’t worried Kat, how her hacker choose to inform her where to meet did. He had a bike messenger physically deliver a card to her that had coordinates to an abandoned gas station some distance out of Gotham.

Hax the hacker loved the digital world. He was very proud of the fact that he didn’t own a pen. Kat’s brain jammed just trying to imagine Hax buying a card, getting a pen, writing coordinates in his terrible, terrible handwriting before handing it all over to a bike messenger. But she supposed he took this route because he was fairly confident that just switching to the physical world would negate the reach of whoever had him spooked.

Kat didn’t have enough data to begin to think about who had Hax spooked, so she didn’t bother. Instead, she tried to think of what Edward might ask her as she drove to his house to collect the money.

* * *

The first thing Edward said when she was let into his study was, “Making progress I see,” he was smiling.

“I am not sure I could look as cheerful as you are handing over 50k,” Kat commented.

“I have been rich long enough to no longer appreciate money,” Edward replied, “Now tell me, why the sudden need for cash?”

Kat explained everything she had uncovered so far. She only made one omission, she didn’t mention that she thought the dark-haired male in Damian’s painting and the dark haired male reflected in the mirror was Jason. She didn’t have any proof it was. So to Edward, she reported him as an unidentified male.

“I am glad that you weren't’ gung-ho enough to completely disregard my warning,” replied Edward, “But I suppose that it is also lucky that you didn’t just accept my paranoia at face value. It led to some interesting developments. I must say, old-fashioned as I am, I just assumed Wayne was getting human hackers to specifically target known archives. I didn’t imagine he had something automated setup to access private computers! I can only imagine what kind of sick perverted thing he’s doing to this, this mysterious boy!”

“How did the digital tampering come to your notice?” wondered Kat.

“Purely by accident I am afraid,” replied Edward as he got up to access his simple metal filing cabinet that stood in stark contrast to his otherwise ornate study filled with period pieces of wood and leather.

“Here we go,” Edward handed her two pieces of paper, one was a printout of a web article while the other appeared to be a newspaper proof page, “The article was part of a wider series the Gotham Gazette was writing about health care in America. This particular article was half puff piece and half serious. I had assigned the young reporter who wrote this to cover some Wayne Foundation charity activity or another. During her research, she found out that some of the Wayne Foundations money was being used to keep alive John Does. So, along with turning in the story, I assigned her, she also wrote up this article. I was particularly impressed by how she seized on the story of one John Doe to not only humanize the whole thing but also tie it back to the Wayne Foundation. Here, I’ll show you the relevant paragraph,” Edward guided her to the paragraph in question on the proof page.

_Considering for a moment the story of the hospital's latest John Doe. A young man with no ID was founding wondering on the outskirts of Gotham. He had suffered massive trauma to the head and all over his body. He kept saying just one word, one name over and over, “Bruce”. Who the boy’s Bruce is or was we may never know, for a while the medical staff was able to save his life, the boy slipped into a coma, and there he still lies. He has been moved to the Huntington Convalescent Home, an institution that wouldn’t exist without the generosity of Bruce Wayne and Wayne Foundation. Perhaps it is only fitting that Bruce Wayne is indirectly looking after a boy whose last words was the name, Bruce._

Kat stopped reading, “Is there something significant about this boy?” Kat asked.

 

“I didn’t think so at the time of publication. I kept the proof because I felt the writer was going to go places,” replied Edward, “I don’t have any children. So I tend to take great pride in the people I mentor. I kept the proof of her first major story with the intention of having it framed and gifted to her once she had one her first Pulitzer or something,” he explained, “About a year ago I was going through my collection of all things Bruce Wayne related. This article was part of it because it mentions the Wayne Foundation, it’s actually included in the flash drive I gave you. But the version you will find on the flash drive, the only version you will find anywhere online is this one,” Edward pointed to the printout of the web article.

Without further prompting, Kat tried to find the paragraph she had previously read. She found it without issue, but it now read, _considering for a moment the story of the hospital's latest John Doe. A young man with no ID was founding wondering on the outskirts of Gotham. He had suffered massive trauma to the head and all over his body. There was no ID on him, and while the medical staff was able to save his life, the boy slipped into a coma and there he still lies. He has been moved to the Huntington Convalescent Home, an institution that wouldn’t exist without the generosity of Bruce Wayne and Wayne Foundation. But keeping him alive is not cheap. In many countries, the plug might have been pulled on him. Even in this country, there are those who would look at him and consider him a futile drain on resources._

“What the hell,” exclaimed Kat.

“Words are my world. Stories are my universe,” replied Edward, “I liked the turn of phrase and the story of a battered child calling for a mysterious ‘Bruce’ and it being Bruce Wayne’s money that was indirectly keeping the lights on at the hospital he was in stuck in my mind. Yet my memory is not infallible, and I was ready to believe I misremembered. But that turn of phrase, perhaps it is only fitting that Bruce Wayne is indirectly looking after a boy whose last words was the name Bruce, it was too divergent from how I write for me to believe I was making it up,” Edward explained.

“Yet my enquiries to the archivist proved futile. The article had not be revised or updated. Multiple other online archives had the same version. It was when I tried to find a hard copy of that particular issue that I became truly suspicious. You see, no one could find a single copy of that particular issue anywhere. It was then that I remembered the proof and the proof showed me that I was not misremembering,” Edward concluded.

“Why would anyone go to so much trouble to erase that line?” wondered Kat.

“I have a theory,” said Edward, “If you look at the timeline, that story came out after Jason Todd’s death but long before Bruce Wayne publicly became the guardian of Tim Drake and long before his adoption of Tim. I believe that this boy was one of Bruce Wayne’s victims!”

Kat wasn’t surprised that his mind went there, “Bruce is a common name. Not as common as some names but just off the top of my head there’s Bruce Lee, Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Arena, Bruce Willis, there are a lot of Bruces in this world.”

“True, but I don’t think Bruce Willis would unleash an army of hackers to modify an inconsequential story about a boy in a persistent vegetative state who was found wandering the streets of Gotham. But Bruce Wayne would. Especially if he felt that as small as this story was, it could somehow lead to a great truth about him,” reasoned Edward.

“I suppose I should go visit this boy,” said Kat.

“You won’t find him,” replied Edward, “One rainy night, he went missing from his bed. Huntington Convalescent Home has barely any security. No cameras, just a night guard. He didn’t see anything.”

“So more smoke but way to follow it to a fire,” replied Kat.

“Indeed,” Edward agreed as he slipped into thought, “Do you think it might be time to open another line of enquiry?”

“What do you mean?”

“I never was able to find hide nor hair of Damian Wayne’s mother,” replied Edward.

“I will see what I can do,” replied Kat, “But please excuse me, I have to get going,” she parted from Edward and headed out to meet Hax.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why yes, I did go back and double check that Jason was still calling Bruce’s name after he dug himself out of his grave! Poor boy, he just wanted his father! T.T


	6. Chapter 6

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

The Ivy University in Ivy Town has a great computer science research centre. They did a lot of good work around image analysis algorithms, often making websites and apps based on watered down version of their research as part of their public outreach to both educate and attract future students. One such fun website put together by the image analysis research project involved guessing what your mother looked like based on a picture of you and your father or vice-versa. Kat tried it out when the website first launched. She uploaded her photo and that of her mother to see what the website thought her father looked like. The result was just accurate enough to peak her interest and she ended up reading all the published papers around the project.

So she knew that the image analysis algorithm would be able to predict a very accurate portrait of Damian Wayne’s mother if she provided it with pictures of Damian, his father, his paternal grandparents and as many of his paternal great-grandparents as possible. Indeed, the algorithm was most accurate when you could provide it with pictures corresponding to the age you wanted the missing image to be. Since Damian was thirteen, Kat could get the algorithm to give her a close approximation of what his mother looked like at age thirteen if she could feed it images of Bruce, Thomas, Martha and other Wayne family members also at age thirteen.

For most people, this would be a tall ask. But the Wayne family was Gotham royalty and like royalty, they were a well-documented family. So the only issues that remained were getting access to the algorithm in question. So Kat pulled up the research papers and started running the names of the authors through the Ivy University directory. She didn’t bother with the professor but instead found the key PhD students and post-docs. A quick investigation on each through their social media profiles and she soon identified her mark.

Suzanne was a recently graduated PhD student who had stayed on with the research project as a post-doc. Suzanne was having difficulty making ends meet this month as she had run into some unexpected car troubles. Suzanne was perfect! Kat dropped Suzanne’s details to Edward and his assistant, asking them to concoct a plausible story involving the Gotham Gazette so Suzanne was comfortable using the algorithm to generate an image approximation of Damian’s mother, taking the money and not mentioning anything to her professor or her lab mates. All that done, Kat headed out the door to meet Hax.

* * *

“Do you have the money?” Hax demanded.

“Yes, but first, what’s got you spooked?” asked Kat.

“The League of Fucking Assassins!” Hax all but screamed.

“What!”

“Or it might be the Red Hood,” replied Hax, “I don’t know, whoever gets to me first!”

“The Red Hood is part of the League?” wondered Kat, “Well that would explain who funded his initial takeover of the Gotham underground. But why don’t you start from the beginning,” she encouraged.

“It wasn’t just one thing. The Wayne family has a lot of bots and viruses and just a lot of shit around them,” Hax was struggling with words, “The first thing I picked up was a bot that seemed to just keep track of who had data repositories about the Wayne family,” Hax explained, “I tried to trace but quickly ran into some nasty security measures that fried my laptop. But as far as I could tell, the bot didn’t change anything. Just found caches and called home to report the location. So I kept digging.”

Hax was walking in circles around Kat, his head bowed with his eyes focused on the ground. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to have to explain. But we don’t always get what we want.

“Finally found the, let’s call it a malware,” Hax went on, “Isolated it, back engineered it. That’s when I realised I knew who wrote.”

“Who?”

“A buddy of mine who went by String567, he’s dead,” replied Hax, “They killed him. The League. I warned him not to take the job but they were offering so much money! He never shared his code with me but did tell me that he was writing something to help erase the digital footprints of league agents. I think the league generates a new malware for each agent they want to erase. The one targeting the Wayne files seemed to have the code the Red Hood.”

“Well Fuck,” whispered Kat, it was all beginning to make horrible sense and it was all falling in line with Edward’s assumptions.

“I want my money!” Hax screamed, “I need to leave, need to hide before they do to me what they did to Strings!”

Kat handed over the money and watched Hax drive off. If Kat took what she learnt so far to Edward, she knew the story he would see based on the clues. Bruce Wayne really was abusing and molesting Jason Todd. Jason, unable to take it, ran away. Maybe he faked his own death or more likely, was accidentally caught it events beyond his control. But at any rate, he wasn’t dead. Bruce got the help of the Red Hood, an agent of the League of Assassins or contracted the league who sent the Red Hood to liaise with Bruce Wayne.

It was the Red Hood who brought Jason Todd back to Wayne Manor and activated the malware under his codename to make sure that no accidental trace of Jason Todd was leaked to the web. But Kat was sure that the Red Hood wasn’t just taking unnecessary precautions against an unknown advisory. The changes the malware was making was too small, too inconsequential. Nobody would have noticed Damian’s painting or the reflection in the mirror. Nobody except the Batman!

If the Batman suspected that Bruce Wayne had perverted tastes and was trying to bring him down. The Batman would watch for even the most minute slipups. Kat was sure, the malware had been decided to keep Jason Todd’s existence from the Batman.

Of course, Bruce Wayne and Batman were one and the same had crossed Kat’s mind many times. But there was no proof and it wasn’t like Bruce Wayne was the only rich, athletic male in the right age bracket in Gotham. Some years ago the Riddler held up a room full of Gotham’s elites, seemingly so he could expose who Batman was. But it quickly became apparent that the Riddler didn’t know. Although he did demonstrate that the Batman could be Graham Knowland or be a member of the McIvor clan.

Kat personally believed that the Batman wasn’t anyone famous. But a highly trained individual who was funded by a consortium of Gotham’s elites. Bruce Wayne was probably part of the consortium but probably couldn’t tell the man the consortium hired to be the Batman to not investigate him without raising suspicions and objections from the other members.

Kat’s phone vibrated. It was an email from Edward that read, “I sent my assistant to corner Suzanne with a contract and an envelope full of cash. She caved straight away and not only ran the algorithm to get an image of Damian Wayne’s mother at age 12 but also aged her up to adulthood using some other algorithms she had. I have attached the photo to this email. I would like to say I am shocked but I did hear a rumour that Talia Head was the one who caused the downfall of Lex Luthor and was the one responsible for giving Wayne Enterprises first dibs on the carcass of LexCorp.”

Kat opened the attachment without much curiosity. She remembered the collapse of LexCorp from a few years back. The then CEO of LexCorp, Talia Head, had appeared out of nowhere and following the collapse, pretty much disappeared. Given everything else, Kat couldn’t help but wonder, if Talia Head was part of the League of Assassin too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the Riddler bit is from Adventures from Batman and Robin. You can find the relevant panels are [here](https://imgur.com/a/MCbLZ). Not sure how I am going to end this but hope you guys are enjoying it so far! Also for those who did know, why yes! Talia was in the public eye for a short time as the CEO of LexCorp!


	7. Chapter 7

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

In his email with Talia’s photo, Edward also ordered her to come to his mansion and make a full report. As Kat drove, she tried to concoct a story that didn’t include telling Edward about the League of Assassins. She hadn’t told Edward that she had found an empty grave that she suspected to belong to Jason. That hadn’t been on purpose. With everything going on, it simply slipped her mind. Edward too didn’t seem to remember he had asked her to find out where Jason was buried.

She also hadn’t shared with Edward that the thought that the man who the malware erased, even when he was accidentally captured in the background, might be Jason Todd. There was also the seemingly random story about a comatose boy who was calling for a… Kat slammed her brakes so hard that she nearly hit her head on the steering wheels. It was a good thing she was still on empty country roads.

“No, it can’t be!” but what other explanation was there? She lived in a world with Superman, Flash, Green Lantern and whatever the hell John Constantine was, so why wouldn’t it be possible for Jason Todd to come back to life and crawl out of his grave.

No matter the amount of smoke, there was no indication that Bruce Wayne was a paedophile but it seemed clear that he had some sort of arrangement with the League of Assassins. She had heard that the head of the demon, as the leader of the League, was called, was immortal. She always assumed it was metaphorical. But what if it wasn’t? What if the League had some way to prolong life or, bring back the dead? 

Edward thought Bruce Wayne was a paedophile who had only adopted his sons to have twenty-four-hour access to some very pretty looking boys. But as much smoke as Kat had found, she had no clue what the nature of the fire was that was producing the smoke. But if Kat assumed that Bruce Wayne loved Jason Todd and like any parent, would do anything to get his son back, then another explanation opened up. But it was still not something she could share with Edward. Edward didn’t need the League’s assassins descending on his house to hasten his death.

* * *

Kat found Edward in what might have once been a gallery. But Edward’s tastes did not seem to run towards art, for the walls were bare. Instead, Edward had a row of whiteboards. He seemed to have written up what Kat had told him on a whiteboard and pinned the images of the Wayne family, plus Talia Head on another. Naturally, Talia’s picture was placed close to that of her son.

“What did you hacker find?” asked Edward.

“The malware seemed to be designed to erase traces of the Red Hood,” replied Kat, she couldn’t be sure of that of course but Edward didn’t need to know that. 

“The Red Hood!” Edward exclaimed, “But of course, Bruce Wayne would need someone like the Hood to find him, fresh victims!”

“Or,” offered Kat, “The Red Hood is connected to Talia Head and this is all about Bruce Wayne being a ruthless businessman.”

“Do you believe that?” demanded Edward.

“There is a lot of smoke but none of them clearly signal child molestation. But given that we know for sure that Bruce Wayne and Talia Head knew each other well enough to have a child together and Head was instrumental in the downfall of LexCorp. A downfall from which Wayne Enterprises greatly benefitted. Isn’t the most logical explanation that Bruce Wayne used Talia Head and the Red Hood to financially benefit from the albeit temporary downfall of Lex Luthor and LexCorp.”

Edward opened his mouth to argue but Kat’s explanation was a plausible one. At the very least, Edward couldn’t easily poke holes in it. “Blah! Dead ends, more dead ends!” he slammed the nearest whiteboard hard enough to make it wobble. Before he tiredly made his way to the nearest armchair to sit down.

“I believe, your original mission was to find what you could have Jason Todd’s death,” Edward sounded exhausted.

“I found his grave,” said Kat, Edward energy seemed to spike at the declaration, “But it was empty. The grave keeper confirmed that it was vandalised some years back. The Wayne Family posted guards but I guess they eventually choose to move the body,” Kat was, of course, making the last bit up. She wasn’t about to share her theory of miraculous resurrection of Jason Todd by the League of Assassins without proof. She wouldn’t even do it with proof, given such knowledge at the hands of someone like Edward Emmiel was bound to attract unwanted attention, “I imagine that Jason Todd’s body was moved into Wayne Manor ground along with the other Wayne corpses during that spade of Wayne grave vandalism,” she felt bad about lying and swore she would make it up to Edward.

“What about his original death?” demanded Edward.

“I couldn’t find any additional information,” Kat conceded.

“Keep looking,” he ordered.

“Very well,” replied Kat and turned to leave. But just before exiting, she turned to Edward and asked, “I just want to confirm that you are doing this for your peace of mind and you don’t have a vendetta against Bruce Wayne.”

“I met Bruce Wayne five time in my life,” Edward explain, “He was always charming and polite. Had he not made a habit of adopting vulnerable children, I would think no more of him then I do the other silver spooned sons of Gotham. I just want to know that there aren’t boys suffering in silence. As I told you the day I hired you, I would love to believe that there is some good still left in the world and those four boys have a great father. The kind of father I wish I could have had.”

Kat nodded, “I just wanted to make sure,” she needed to make sure that she finally understood the true request Edward had made of her and it wasn’t to figure out what exactly happened to Jason Todd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the next chapter will the last chapter. You guys are either going to love it or hate it!


	8. Chapter 8

**The Secret**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing!

* * *

As soon as Kat came home, she pulled up the list of American who died overseas around the time Jason Todd died. The list was compiled from deaths reported to the various embassies and consulates, so it only contained deaths that were reported to the State Department. Kat obtained the list on the off chance of finding something. The details released by the Wayne family had been very thin on details. Jason Todd was said to have gone overseas for personal reasons and unwittingly got caught in a string of coordinated terrorist activities that were taking place all over the world around that time. That also helped them not specify where exactly Jason died.

On first perusal of the list, Kat had found no one who might have been a companion of Jason Todd’s. She always planned to come back to the list and pay it closer attention, but the other roads of enquiry had just seemed more promising. But with the others exhausted, she started going through the list with a fine tooth comb to find connections to Jason Todd.

She put the list into her computer and ran a program she had that cross-referenced images, names as well as other known details against known associates of Jason Todd. There was one hit at a 50% probably because of a possible image match. Kat drilled down into the match intrigued at who it could be. The image from Jason’s file and the passport image the State Department required a scrutiny to match. The woman had aged significantly between the two photos and not just due to time. 

The name was different; the birth date was the same and a few other details. But the biggest reason Kat’s program gave the match a low probability was because the person in Jason’s file was supposed to be dead! Getting up from the computer, Kat went to the whiteboard in her office and started to write down every bit of information she had gathered.

_Jason Todd somehow discovered his mother was alive or saw a woman who looked a lot like his mother._

_Jason Todd travelled to the Middle East to meet up with this woman_

_Jason Todd and this woman died, most likely together_

_Jason Todd was buried in an unmarked grave that is now empty_

_There was a boy found on the outskirts of Gotham calling for “Bruce” who was never identified, but someone went to a lot of trouble to scrub his mention in a story associated with the Wayne Foundation_

_The boy also went missing, and no traces were found of him, it can also assume that the police failed to identify him given he was listed as John Doe_

_The mother of Bruce Wayne’s biological son is Talia Head_

_Talia Head appeared out of nowhere, at least as far as the public was concerned, to take over LexCorp. She disappeared after its fall, but one of her last acts was to help Wayne Enterprises get a controlling interest in LexCorp_

_Two Instagram images that had an unidentified male with black hair in the background erased by a malware code-named Red Hood_

_The malware was originally commissioned by the League of Assassins_

Kat stepped away from the board and sighed. So much smoke, but no pattern was apparently except that it was clear that Bruce Wayne seemed to have some association with the League of Assassins. Kat just wasn’t sure how deep the association went. It was possible that Talia Head, given her rapid rise and complete disappearance, was League but that was just conjecture. But what Kat did know what that as despicable as the League could be, they weren’t known to associate with child molesters. In fact, it was the opposite. The League was famous for rescuing children from sex slavery.

Of course, the League then proceeded to exploit said children into becoming their soldiers, but the point remained, the League was more likely to kill Bruce Wayne and find some way to steal his fortunate then aid and abate him if Bruce Wayne was a pervert. No, the more likely explanation was that Bruce Wayne was clean of any sins the League took fault with and maybe because of that, the League might have resurrected Jason for him. But perhaps something went wrong in the resurrection process, and Jason went missing for a time. Maybe that’s when the Red Hood came to town, found Jason and reunited him with the Wayne family. But since Jason was officially still dead, they released a malware to make sure nothing leaked out to even hint at this true status.

Maybe Bruce Wayne was also trying to avoid scrutiny from the Batman. Assuming he wasn’t the Batman because he did fit the bill of those in Gotham who might be Batman. Assuming Batman was self-funded and not, as Kat thought, funded by a consortium of rich folks.

Kat turned away from the board with a sigh. She couldn’t use what she had to prove to Edward that Bruce Wayne wasn’t a paedophile who had used and abused Jason Todd. In fact, she wasn’t sure there was anything she could say to bring peace to Edward. But she knew who could. Returning to her desk, Kat pulled out the file on Dick Grayson.

* * *

Kat waited outside the Bludhaven casino where Dick Grayson apparently worked as a dealer. She had no idea why the adopted son of Bruce Wayne, who she knew had a big fat trust fund, would bother working but she supposed everybody needed a hobby. Indeed, it was probably because Dick didn’t have to rely on his paycheck to make ends meet that he could live in the apartment he did, wear what he wore etc.

Kat’s thoughts were interrupted as Dick came out a side entrance. Curiously, instead of heading to the mouth of the blind alley, he started to head towards the back. But he abruptly stopped when he became aware of Kat’s presence and headed towards the only opening into the alley.

Kat had her opening, “Wow, where you going to scale the walls?” she asked, “And here I thought the League of Assassins just helped you resurrect your brother. But I guess you might have picked up a few ninja tricks from them too!”

The shock shined through for just a moment before Dick Grayson plastered a pleasant smile and said sincerely, “I haven't the faintest clue what you are talking about.”

If Kat hadn’t caught that brief moment of shock, she might have bought the lie, “Let me buy you coffee Mr Grayson and over it, I’ll tell you why I have been digging into your family and what I have found so far. I mean, a family as secretive as yours probably doesn’t want the fact that your little brother’s mother is Talia Head, the former CEO of LexCorp, plastered all over the gossips sites.”

Dick stopped pretending as his face darkened with anger and irritation. Honestly was a good start. As for the rest, everything Kat read about him indicated that Dick Grayson was a decent person with a lot of empathy. Kat certainly hoped she wasn’t off the mark with her assessment.

* * *

Kat found Edward back in the gallery, staring fixedly at the photo of Damian and Talia, “What do you have for me?” Edward asked as he turned to face Kat and started when he saw who was with Kat.

“Mr Grayson, to what do I owe the pleasure?” asked Edward pleasantly even as he glared at Kat.

“Call me Dick and as for why I am here,” Dick turned to Kat, “It’s come to my attention that we might need to talk. Off the record and heart to heart.”

“I’ll believe your assistant has made me tea in the sunroom,” with that Kat excused herself.

* * *

Dick and Edward talked for over an hour. By the time Kat was called back into the gallery, Dick was gone and Edward was taking down the pictures stuck to the whiteboards. Edward stopped when he heard Kat enter, “He had pictures.”

“Pictures?”

“A lot of pictures of him and Bruce Wayne. As well as a fair few of Wayne and Jason Todd. He seems to love his adopted father and spoke eloquently about how much Jason was loved. How did you convince him to talk to me?” asked Edward, “I mean, it's not like I didn’t try to get an interview with Dick Grayson or his brothers before.”

“If this were about a story, he wouldn’t have agreed,” replied Kat, “But I explained that you were a dying old man who was interested in what happened to Jason Todd because you could relate to an orphaned street rat. I explained that you genuinely just wanted to make sure that a monster wasn’t walking among us but would dearly love to go to your grave in peace. Knowing that you and others weren’t blinded by Bruce Wayne’s wealth, power and the near-royal like privilege he enjoys in Gotham.”

“Dick Grayson did not have any interest in helping to sell papers or satisfy the idle curiosity of Gotham’s bored citizens. But helping an old man find peace, especially when I assured him that you were open to reason, well that was something different.”

Edward nodded, “Why do I get the impression you didn’t share everything you found with me?” he asked of Kat.

“I shared what I could, and I didn’t hold back anything that would remotely support your hypothesis,” replied Kat, “I did hold back some of my abductive reasoning but only because I didn’t find enough evidence to support my thinking. The situation was muddy enough without my unverifiable speculation.”

Edward nodded, looking, Kat wasn’t sure how he was looking. Perhaps a little lost, “Are you not convinced?” she asked.

“No, no, I am convinced the Bruce Wayne loves his sons and tries his best to be a good father to them. Dick certainly made sure to explain to me in excruciating detail why it would be impossible for Bruce Wayne to get away with something like child molestation. Did you know Wayne is friends with Superman and Wonder Woman?”

“Makes sense,” replied Kat, “The Justice League must get its funding from somewhere.”

“Superman alone would have ensured the boys Wayne was taking in would be safe.”

“Then?”

“I don’t know how to feel,” replied Edward, “There are good people in the world who take in street rats and love them like their own. But the boy from the street still doesn’t get to grow up and live happily ever after. They still die in alone, in the middle of nowhere. Isn’t that just sad and heartbreaking?”

“Yes but I think Jason was still better off having met Bruce,” replied Kat, “After all, one good memory is better than none.”

“I suppose,” replied Edward.

Kat left shortly after, having picked up a nice fat and hopefully well-deserved paycheck. For a moment she considered going on a long vacation. But on second thought, she decided on a staycation but with increased surveillance and security around her house. Partly to make sure she hadn’t attracted unwanted League attention but mostly to see if her brush with the Wayne family brought about increased Bat presence around her. Maybe she could finally get some proof one way or another on the Bruce Wayne - Batman rumours...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! It’s done! Over! I figure some people would hate this ending, but it seemed the most logical one given that the goal was to give Edward peace before he died and not to expose Bruce Wayne’s secret. Also if Kat kept digging, she would have found out the truth but not without getting unpleasant visits from Batman, Red Hood and possibly even the League of Assassins. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me! Your comments and kudos were the only things stopping me from ditching and deleting this story. ^.^


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